Travelling with the whole family? We’re making that easy!

Date: 28/08/2025 by Southern Cross Travel Insurance

The logistics of managing multiple people and their abilities can be challenging enough without having to have multiple travel insurance policies to ensure everyone can adventure with peace of mind. That’s why SCTI supports and encourages families to travel with one policy which can cater to every member of the party and their needs. We can even include children’s friends who are lucky enough to be invited to travel with a family!

Looking at our International Comprehensive policy – we’ve outlined some of the features and benefits which cater well to families, with members of all ages and stages. 

Firstly, we’re happy to offer cover from 0 to 118 years – now that’s multi-generational!

The premium includes cover for the policy holder’s dependent children (aged 20 and under).  A dependent child can be any of the policy holder’s children, stepchildren, foster children, and grandchildren who are under 21 years old at the date the insurance starts and who are not in full-time employment.

Families can also include their (very lucky) kids’ friends (non-dependent children) on the policy. We all know of that teen who can’t bear to be separated from their first love or their absolute best mate, so it’s great to be able to offer them cover too.

If the whole family is already sitting on a plane, or you’ve arrived in Fiji and you’ve realised you’ve taken off without travel insurance, a family can now purchase insurance having already left home with no stand down period. Terms and conditions apply, and there is no cover for claims for an event that is not unexpected e.g. you lost your cell phone just before taking out the policy or there is a widely reported weather event when you take out your policy that then impacts your travel.  

If it’s necessary to make a claim, for ease, the main policy holder can look after any claim through SCTI. A single point of contact makes for easier resolution! 

There’s also only one excess payable for an event if all people are listed on the same policy. Customers can choose excess options of $0, $100 and $200. Choosing an excess can reduce the cost of a premium. Other things to note for families and in general:

• SCTI now offers ‘home to home’ cover where everyone on the policy is covered from their home and back throughout their journey, not just from when you leave the country.  
• Our benefits now apply to each person on the policy e.g. cover for cancellation or journey changes before you leave, changes to your journey once you have left, baggage and personal items, and emergency dental treatment. 
• The main policy holder can specify high value items on behalf of all family members OR family members can contact us to specify their own high value items. Items are specified for each individual.
• Likewise, the main policy holder can specify pre-existing conditions (PECs) on behalf of all family members OR family members can contact SCTI to specify their own PECs and pay any additional premium required.
• Every SCTI customer can access emergency help and advice, every day of the year, at any time. Whether you need urgent medical help or some other crisis has unfolded, we are here to assist.
  
   

When it comes to preferred destinations, Australia is clearly a preferred destination for New Zealanders with the UK and USA coming in 2nd and 3rd. 

We also took a look at preferred holiday duration for family groups. Kiwis tend towards 6 – 10 days with 11 – 20 a close second.

We’ve recently made some changes making it easier to purchase travel insurance and make claims online.  But we do realise that sometimes customers just want to have a chat with a human, and we are more than happy to do this.

To recap, family insurance policies are super common and allow all members of the family to be covered under one policy for ease. The main policy holder should make sure that each person’s details are included on the Certificate of Insurance and that any medical conditions and high value or special items are listed on the policy. 

SCTI can support individual needs in the one policy allowing for personalisation relating to pre-existing medical conditions, or special items for different family members. And it’s now much easier to take these things into account when purchasing a policy online and making a claim with our recently enhanced website. 

Having every family member on the same policy will save time and effort and makes it much easier to claim if something goes wrong.  

Do claims differ by age? 

Let’s look at claims by age group to understand how an insurance policy can support different travellers. There are some issues common to multiple groups, but there are a variety of challenges customers face as they adventure around the world. The examples below are from the last 12 months at SCTI.

0-17 years:

Claims for this carefree and curious group range from medical for everything from a snake bite (!) and gastro-enteritis, while probably not unexpectedly, there are several for dropped phones and lost earphones.

18 – 30 years:

SCTI always cautions customers to take out moped insurance cover when travelling, however, there are certainly cases where we have supported customers who are knocked down and injured by other careless moped drivers. 

‘Gastro’ is also a feature for this group when it comes to medical claims as are injuries sustained in falls while skiing (which is covered by a skiing add-on, Ts and Cs apply).  Flight cancellations and delay and lost or stolen phones also start to crop up with this group. One curious case was a stolen microphone a customer relied on to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. 

31 – 60 years:

Surprisingly given the size of this group there are some constant themes, from rolled ankles, gastro AGAIN, ear infections, lost or damaged prescription glasses and earrings, lower back pain due to lifting heavy luggage, monkey bites, cancelled events and IT issues (Taylor Swift + CrowdStrike), through to industrial action on Italian trains, Cyclone Alfred and helping out when customers have dropped their ‘old school’ but much loved large cameras or their Kindle.

61 – 70 years:

The dynamic alters a bit in this group where customers may have to change their plans unexpectedly when close (younger) family members fall ill and they need to change their travel plans to step into the breech and support with childcare. When travelling, they are more likely to succumb to leg swelling, respiratory illnesses, flu and losing or breaking hearing aids, spectacles and dentures.

71 + years:

While the 70s are the new 50s for many, there’s no denying many of us can start to get a little more vulnerable and compromised as we age, so SCTI starts to see things like UTI infections, shingles, sepsis, cellulitis and hip and leg fractures amongst our adventurous silver travellers.  These events can really take a toll on our customers – with one case in the last 12 months requiring an air ambulance home to Aotearoa and a very hefty claim, which we were privileged to support. SCTI supports customers up to 118 years.